many, ten, five.

Too many
I organized my books this week. By that, I mean only the books that I have not yet read. My to-read pile takes up two bookcases, one of them stacked two deep. I am not proud of this. It's very easy to collect books and then not read them.

I have therefore put myself on hold in terms of buying books. I am not allowed, as according to me. Unfortunately, it's also very easy to say that you're not going to buy any books and then do it anyway. Which is how I came home from the Goodwill yesterday with seven books. In my defense, three of them are hardback copies of books that I already own, so I can upgrade my current copies. The other four? Well, they look really good.

Seriously, y'all. No more books.

Ten
I have a Wii and about five games to go with it. It doesn't get a whole lot of play in the house, but it's nice to have the option. On Cyber Monday, I bought a copy of Lego Harry Potter for $10. Admittedly, a video game made about a toy line based on a movie that is based on a book series is some ridiculous cross-marketing. But hey, if it's a good game, who cares?

My ten dollars was not wasted. Low-stress, hard to die, lots of things to see and places to explore - these are things I like in a video game. In fact, it seems to be impossible to die. You lose all your life points, but you get a fresh one right away. That is a trend I've noticed in a couple of the other games that I have. You can die, but you have unlimited lives. It's like they want you to keep playing.

Anyway, if I don't get sick of it, I hear the Lego Indiana Jones is pretty fun, too.

Five
I stumbled across a new-to-me retail store. I even went inside! It's called Five Below, and the premise is that everything is less than five dollars. It's basically a dollar store, but it's somehow hipper than Dollars Tree or General. For instance, there was a large wall dedicated to smartphone cases.

It's a fun little store. I'm missing the target demographic by about fifteen years, but I'll probably be returning before too long to grab a couple of stocking stuffers. I read recently that dollar stores are doing quite well right now, what with the lousy economy. That's A-OK with me. Widespread acceptance of frugality is maybe the silver lining of the recession.